New Member Assembler Tools!

Oct 27, 2011

Posted by: mikecuccaro

Based on feedback that we've gotten from all of you, we're rolling out a ton of upgrades to help you use your Member Assembler to its maximum advantage. We're making it easier for you to combine e-commerce with your Member Assembler and also giving you new options to save you time and money. Please take a look and let us know what you think!

eCheck.Net

eCheck.Net is a new checkout option for Member Assembler Authorize.net payments that will give your members the convenience of paying securely online while saving you between 1% and 2% on the transaction fees. Instead of credit card information, members will enter in their checking account details for a direct payment to you, like with PayPal. Be sure to configure your Authorize.net merchant account to accept eCheck.Net payments before enabling this new feature in your control panel. Please contact us before setting up this option

Disabled Members

If someone has to cancel their CSA partway through your season, you can now easily disable and re-enable a member through your control panel. Disabled Members will still be attached to their types but will not receive pickup reminders and the like. This will also be useful if you have a rolling enrollment to keep your new members from receiving automated notices that their shares are ready before you are ready.

Renewals

Want to get in touch with all of your past members and give them a quick link to sign up to your new season? The new automated renewal process will generate a new user group which is a "snapshot" of who hasn't signed up at that moment and sets you up with an email that sends a unique sign-up link to each user. The renewals page also gives you a count and percentage of how many of your members have renewed.

Member Assembler Widget

To help your members get to all the tools they might want to use on your site: updating their account, making a payment, getting their status, or shopping in one of your departments; there is a new widget that will show up throughout your site, giving them all their links in one convenient area.

Optional Member Agreement

Now with your signups, you can add the additional step of having your members read and agree to any terms and conditions before they complete the process, hopefully saving you some "No one told me that!" conversations later.

Member Balances

To better see how your Member Balances are calculated, now all of the various payments and invoices are combined into a single list for each member. You can still just view one category or another if you wish. Additionally, if you'd like to combine e-commerce transactions with Member Assembler transactions when calculating your members' balances, you may do that as well.

Newsletter and Reminder Options

When sending out email newsletters, you have some new options to include. There is a new "private description" field associated with each Pickup Location. You can use this for special instructions or information you only want a confirmed member to see: such as the address and phone number of a host location. Member Types can also now be pulled to display for each member on pickup reminders, should you desire that.

Reset Group Passwords

When setting up a private e-commerce department, how do you let your members know where to go to log in and what password to use? Now there is an easy one-stop resource where you simply choose a department and a message and all members will get an email with either a randomly generated unique password or a single password you choose for all members to use. One click, and they are into your new store!

Payments

If you are accepting any form of online payments, now your members have the option to go and make a payment at any time without you needing to submit a payment request. Members can pay their remaining balance, or, if the amount is at least $50, pay off half or a quarter of what they owe you.

These are just the major changes. There are also dozens of small tweaks here and there, based on what we've heard from you, that will make your Member Assembler experience more friendly and efficient.

As always, we welcome your feedback about these changes and what changes you would like to see in the future. Please contact us with your thoughts and concerns.